


Songs the Drowned Men Sing

by originally



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Ironborn History and Culture, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:13:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/originally/pseuds/originally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Dagon Drumm, excerpted from <i>Songs the Drowned Men Sing</i> by Maester Kirth</p>
            </blockquote>





	Songs the Drowned Men Sing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snacky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snacky/gifts).



Along with the Grey King himself, one of the most fascinating ironborn figures of the Age of Heroes is Dagon Drumm, known as the Necromancer. As we know, the songs of the drowned men are full of stories of resurrection: the prayer to the Drowned God, in its simplest form, tells us 'what is dead may never die', and the religious ceremonies of the Iron Islands involve largely-symbolic drowning and ritual restoration. The legend of Dagon Drumm, however, takes this fixation on death and rebirth to never-before-seen extremes.

The Birth of a Necromancer

Dagon Drumm was born on Old Wyk, though the exact dates and circumstances of his birth are lost to the mists of time. The noble House Drumm are lords of the island, and have produced a number of High Kings over the years. They claim they can trace their ancestry back many centuries, and believe themselves to be descended from the First Men who originally colonised the Iron Islands[1].

Very little is known of Dagon's childhood and passage into adulthood. We can extrapolate from the few histories of ironborn life that survive from that period that his childhood was likely a hard one, and that he likely became a reaver at a relatively young age, perhaps four and ten. We can also safely assume that he was inducted into the faith of the Drowned God through the usual ritual of 'drowning' in the sea. It is, however, a second encounter with the sea that forms the basis for Dagon's legend.

History tells us that Dagon Drumm's longship, _Iron Hand_ , was wrecked in the Narrow Sea whilst he was reaving in the Stepstones. Accounts are divided on whether the cause was a particularly fierce storm, a fleet of barbarians from Essos, or, less credibly, a maddened, rampaging kraken. Following this wreck, Dagon himself went missing and was presumed drowned along with his crew. As it turned out, he was far from gone.

Dagon Reborn

The Dagon Drumm that returned to the Iron Islands many months later was, by all accounts, vastly changed. It is said that he survived the wreck of _Iron Hand_ by clinging to a piece of wood, and later washed up on a deserted island. The exact nature of this event remains mysterious, and, I dare say, has fallen prey to fanciful exaggeration and the vagaries of the oral history tradition. It has been suggested, for example, that he was not merely lost in the Stepstones but rather floated much further afield to one of the then-uncharted and unexplored islands in the Summer Sea or even, perhaps, as far as the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai. Nevertheless, the fact remains that he did return with brand new ship and crew, even more fierce and ruthless than before.

Whilst ironborn have always taken thralls—indentured servants—and, indeed, at this time the practice was common across all of Westeros, Dagon Drumm's crew were thralls in the fullest sense of the word. According to legend, they were unable to speak or think for themselves and were completely subservient to Dagon's will. It appears that, wherever we might accept that he was, he became proficient in what we at the Citadel know as the black arts, a practice prohibited by all right-thinking and civilised peoples. Rather than take his thralls by force from among those villages and towns he pillaged, Dagon chose instead to slit the throats of his enemies and raise them magically from the dead to do his bidding.

What is Dead May Never Die

Dagon Drumm's army of reanimated thralls made him the most fearsome and dangerous pirate to ever sail the waters of Westeros. The thralls did not bleed and felt no pain, and could survive the most grievous injuries that would have felled a mortal man. What's more, the soldiers that the men of the mainland sent against him only swelled the ranks of his thrall army when they perished and were reborn under Dagon's command. The only way to stop these hideous abominations was to destroy their body completely through burning.

Allowed to continue unchecked, Dagon Drumm may well have conquered all of Westeros. He had, however, a brother: Dagner, a drowned man of legendary piety and fervour. Dagner Drumm, angered by what he saw as his brother's slight against the Drowned God—his choice to not drown his thralls before raising them up—lured Dagon back to Old Wyk under the pretense of holding a Kingsmoot where he would inevitably be crowned High King of the Iron Islands. Here, at the summit of Nagga's Hill, Dagner Drumm murdered his brother by incapacitating him with his driftwood cudgel and throwing him, unconscious, into the sea to drown. Upon Dagon's death, his thralls became lifeless once more, their connection to their master severed for good.

As far as history recalls, no other ironborn has since attempted to recreate Dagon Drumm's black art, a fact for which we all must be grateful.

Notes

[1] I have been unable to verify this claim with the primary sources, as certain of the ironborn are hostile toward Maesters of the Citadel.


End file.
